A2 media magazine evaluation

1. Magazine improvements
evaluation

2. Front page
• What I think I could have done better on the front page is that I could have
added a few more things on the front that are included in the magazine to
try and appeal to the audience like competitions, freebies etc. Although
when making my magazine I thought that it would take away from the
effect I was trying to get across with the simplicity factor of the front page.
The fact that the front page is rather simplistic I think appeals to the
audience because they may be turned off of the magazine if the page is too
busy and full.
• Some of the typical conventions of a front page I have used are: using
bright colours to draw the readers attention, using a large image that takes
up the whole page, not overlaying the image on the masthead (because I
am not a well established magazine) and using colour balances on the page
so it does not look one sided.

3. Contents page
• I am both happy and unhappy at the same time with the contents
page because even though it looks professional, goes with the house
style and is again simplistic I feel like the layout of the page could
have been better, I could have possibly gone for a horizontal layout
rather than a vertical layout.
• Some of the typical conventions that I have used on my contents page
are: having all of the actual content of the magazine down one side of
the page, some magazines do tend to have their contents in a
horizontal fashion but many of them also use the vertical layout that I
have chosen to go for.

4. Double page spread
• On the double page spread I feel like the article could have been inserted in a
more inventive way, like I could have possibly made the text wrap around the two
models, although I do like the way the articles look on the final draft. In terms of
the image, I think that both of the models could have been cut out in a better
fashion, I could have blended the edges better and made them look a little bit
more natural because there are a few straight lines on the models where there
should not be.
• Some of the typical conventions of an article/double page spread that I have used
are: using a pull quote from the article to try and entice the reader into reading
the article. Another convention that I have used is using a large image in the
centre of the page that covers both pages, I think that this suits my target
audience because as I have said before my audience I think looks for the
simplistic features in a magazine so instead of using lots of images that cover the
page like some magazines do I have chosen the approach of using one large
image.

5. Making of the magazine
• Personally I found the making of the magazine to be stressful since at the
beginning of the course we started by doing the short film brief, but at around
Christmas time we realised that we were not going to be able to do the filming
for the brief so we had to completely change what we were doing which was the
magazine brief. This was stressful because we were basically 4 months behind on
what we were supposed to be doing, so a lot more work and effort had to be put
in, in order to meet the deadline. I also found it time consuming because all of
the photos we used in the magazine had to be our own photography, so setting
up the shoots, getting the models ready etc. all took a lot of time.
• To capture the images that I have used in my magazine I used a… camera, at first I
found this difficult because I had never used a camera like this before so it took
me a while to get used to all of the different functions that the camera had, also
by using one of these more complex cameras I had to learn how to capture
decent images because I always used mini cameras. So I had to change the way I
took the pictures in terms of my hand placement, using the flash, using different
settings to capture different types of images etc.

6. Elements of the magazine
• The elements that I found easy were, firstly Photoshop, I found using Photoshop
to manipulate my images quite easy because I was used to the software because I
had to use it in my AS brief. Another element that I found easy was taking the
photographs, even though I had no idea on how to take decent photos I have
many friends who are photography students so they helped me out on how to
take the photos.
• One of the elements that I found difficult was changing from Photoshop to Adobe
InDesign, even though the software is very similar I still found it difficult because
not everything is the same on both sets of software. The second element that I
found difficult was designing the layout of the pages in the magazine. For a long
time I was debating on where to put the text, images, coverlines etc. so it was
frustrating that I could not find a professional looking layout for my magazine, but
thankfully I finally came to a decision after changing the way my images looked
and rearranging the text, font, colour and size.

7. Developments
• Throughout the duration of the course I feel that my skills on Adobe
InDesgin and Adobe Photoshop have increased a considerable
amount. Before the start of A2 I had no idea of how to use InDesign
even though the software is very similar. I also feel that my
photography skills have taken a big step forward due to the help of a
few classmates.

8. Overall opinion
• Overall I am happy with the outcome of my work, but I did not enjoy
the process of making the magazine due to varying factors. One being
the fact that we had to restart what we were doing half way through
the course so we fell behind severely, this put a lot of stress on me
because it meant that I almost fell behind on my other subjects as
well.
• One factor that I did enjoy though was manipulating the images on
Photoshop, even though this can be a long process and is very time
consuming, I enjoy manipulating images because there is a lot of
satisfaction when you see the final product.

9. What went well
• One of the things that I think went well is, on my double page spread I
managed to put together two separate images and make them look
like a single image, I did this through cutting out both of the models
separately and then putting one of the images over the other one to
get the look of the female model putting her hand on the male
models chest.

10. What went badly
• What I think went badly in the production is, firstly the way my
images look, even though I am very happy with the way they have
turned out, I feel that they could have been better in terms of how
the edges of the images look. I think that I could have made the
images look a lot more smooth by blurring them or cutting them out
in a better fashion.
• The second thing that I think went badly is the range of images I used
in the magazine, I could have potentially used a wider range of
models. I think that I could have had a lot more images on the
contents page, but I could not take more pictures due to the amount
of coursework that I had to complete so the images that I had were
sufficient.

11. Ancillary tasks
• For my first ancillary task I made a radio advert to promote my magazine. To make
this advert I used a voice recorder and had a script that I read why it was
recording. The idea behind both of my ancillary tasks was to tease the audience
that listen to the advert which is why I mad the radio advert only last about 20
seconds. I think by making the radio advert this short it will intrigue the audience
to want to find out more about the magazine.
• For my second ancillary task I made a billboard advert. To make the design of the
billboard I used Photoshop. On the billboard, like the radio advert, I made it really
simple and don’t give away too much. The idea behind using this method is that I
think my target audience do not want a complex magazine which is why the
majority of the actual magazine is simple. With the billboard just having the
masthead of the magazine and a short snappy line that tempts the reader I think
that more people will want to read the magazine. Because it give you enough
information for you to be intrigued but doesn't give away too much about the
magazine.